Child restrainer and harness



May 7, 1963 v. w. OLIPHANT cam RESTRAINER AND HARNESS Filed Sept. 5, 1961 INVENTOR Virginia W. Oliphont "W {QM/3M ATTORNEYS FIG.4.

3,088,438 CHILD RESTRAINER AND HARNESS Virginia W. Oiiphant, 4816 W St, Washington, 13.6. Filed Sept. 5, 1961, Ser. No. 136,044 2 Claims. (Cl. 119-96) This invention relates to a new and useful improvement in a childs restrainer and harness.

Heretofore certain devices have been supplied to restrain children, particularly those comprising certain harness like arrangements that are built into a childs clothing and which have a short leash attached thereto which is retained within the hand of the adult to prevent the child from wandering into harms way. The disadvantages of these devices reside in the fact that the child is greatly limited in the amount of movement permitted to him and also that it requires the constant attention of an adult.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a device that may be used the year round to restrain a child within a given area.

It is also an object of this invention to permit the child the maximum amount of freedom with just sufficient restraint to prevent him from getting into a dangerous position.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a movable restrainer which may be taken from place to lace. p These and other objects will be apparent from the description, which is given for purposes of illustration and not for the purpose of limitation of the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the child with a restrainer attached to the body of the child.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view in detail of the device without the child.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the reel.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view on line 4-4 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view on line 55 of FIG. 4.

A child has the restraining device 11 fastened about his body. Attached to the restraining device is restraining flexible element 12. This is retained and held by a reel 13 which is shown in FIG. 1, and is attached to a tree 14 by means of a strap 15.

The restraining device comprises a detachable body element having 21 waist strap '16 and shoulder straps 17, 17 attached thereto. These shoulder straps are held together in the back by the zipper 18. Attached to the waist straps 16 are the lead straps 19, 19. Each of these straps terminates in rings 20, 20. This restraining device may be made of leather, but is preferably made of very heavy cloth, such as canvas, which may be washed to clean the same, and which will not over-heat the body of an active child. The flexible element 412 has a book 21 at the end thereof which may be fastened to the rings 20, 2t). Immediately above this hook is the ball 22 to keep the hook from jamming the reel. This flexible element 12 may be made from woven cotton rope, but is preferably made from a flexible ropelike material having a flexible plastic coating, such as polyethylene applied over a cotton rope. This prevents the danger from bothersome rope burns.

The flexible element is retained within the reel 13. This reel must supply suficient tension to the element 12 to retain it in a taut condition, but it must not supply Patented May 7, 1963 sufficient tension so as to choke the child if the flexible element 12 should encircle the throat. It has been found that a tension of one pound gives satisfactory results and should be within the range of /2 to 2 pounds. In order to supply this tension a reel 13 of an adjustable type is supplied. This reel '13, shown in FIG. 3 has a handle 23 which is attached to the casing 24, which casing supports a central spindle 25, shown in FIG. 5. This spindle rotates freely on one end, as shown in FIG. 4. The other end has attached thereto a spring 26, the other end of the spring being attached to a lever 27 which is held in position by the bolt '28 and the thumb nut 29 to provide an adjustable tension on the spring. Also mounted on the spring loaded spindle 25 is a reel casing 30 which holds the flexible element 12 always under tension which may be regulated as described above.

The child 10 has the restraining device placed about his body, the zipper 18 is then closed to hold the device in position. The two rings 20, 20 are placed within the hook 21 and the reel 13 may either be held in the hand or fastened to some stationary object, such as a tree or a newel post so that the child can play within the area defined by the flexible element 12.

This allows the adult to let the child play within a predetermined area without being within reach of the child to keep the child from wandering into harms way, like an adjacent roadway. The restraining device may be moved during different portions of the day to different positions as desired by the adult so as to prevent excessive exposure to the sun.

Many advantages have been found with the use of this device. The child has the maximum amount of freedom with complete security. The adult does not have to stay within reach of the child but may read or sew or otherwise be occupied. The child soon learns to trust this device and is not afraid to leave the immediate presence of the adult and has even been known to beg to have the device placed upon him so that he may play freely.

It is apparent that many variations can be made in the above invention by a person skilled in the art without departing from the invention, which is only limited by the claims which are attached hereto.

What is claimed is:

1. A childs restraining device, comprising in combination; a restraining element, a flexible element and a reel, the restraining element consisting of a waist strap open at the back, two shoulder straps, connecting means attaching these shoulder straps and a belt together out of reach of the child, a pair of lead straps with terminal portions having one end attached to the waist strap and the other end attached to the flexible element, and means to retain the flexible element under tension, comprising a. spring biased reel, said reel being mounted on a stationary object.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said reel maintains a flexible element under a tension of /z to 2 pounds, said reel spring being adjustable to maintain the tension within said limits.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,250,171 Wilkins July 22, 1941 2,563,766 Weinstein et al Aug. 7, 1951 2,725,853 Nordheim Dec. 6, 1955 2,776,644 Fortaine I an. 8, 1957 

1. A CHILD''S RESTRAINING DEVICE, COMPRISING IN COMBINATION; A RESTRAINING ELEMENT, A FLEXIBLE ELEMENT AND A REEL, THE RESTRAINING ELEMENT CONSISTING OF A WAIST STRAP OPEN AT THE BACK, TWO SHOULDER STRAPS CONNECTING MEANS ATTACHING THESE SHOULDER STRAPS AND A BELT TOGETHER OUT OF REACH OF THE CHILD, A PAIR OF LEAD STRAPS WITH TERMINAL PORTIONS HAVING ONE END ATTACHED TO THE WAIST STRAP AND THE OTHER END ATTACHED TO THE FLEXIBLE ELEMENT, AND MEANS TO RETAIN THE FLEXIBLE ELEMENT UNDER TENSION, COMPRISING A SPRING BIASED REEL, SAID REEL BEING MOUNTED ON A STATIONARY OBJECT. 